LaserCard: Fiscal 3Q09 Financial Results

(in US$ millions)	3Q08	3Q09	9 mo. 08	9 mo. 09
Revenues	11.2	10.9	29.8	35.1
*Growth*		-3%		*+18%*
Net income (loss)	(1.1)	(0.8)	(3.9)	(1.9)

LaserCard Corporation announced its financial results for its fiscal 2009 third quarter ended December 31, 2008.

Revenues for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 were $10.9 million, compared with $13.5 million in the prior quarter and $11.2 million in the same quarter a year ago. The net loss for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 was $849,000, or ($0.07) per diluted share, compared with a net profit of $239,000 or $0.02 per diluted share in the prior quarter, and net loss of $1.1 million or ($0.09) per diluted share in the same quarter a year ago.

LaserCard optical memory card revenues for the quarter were $6.0 million compared with $8.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2009 and $7.9 million in the third quarter last year. Revenues from specialty cards and printers were $4.3 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2009 compared with $3.9 million in the prior quarter and $3.1 million in the same quarter a year ago.

LaserCard Corporation’s cash, cash equivalents, and investments were $21.9 million at December 31, 2008 compared with $22.9 million at September 30, 2008. The Company has obtained a credit line from UBS in the amount of $8.7 million that is collateralized by its Student Loan Auction Rate Securities. During December, the Company drew down $3.0 million on this credit line.

“The deployment process associated with the Angolan National ID card program is moving forward,” said Bob DeVincenzi, President and CEO of LaserCard. “Deployment of data collection and database infrastructure by the partner team has been underway, and implementation of the infrastructure for issuing cards can now begin, following our delivery of approximately $2 million worth of card personalization equipment during the third quarter. Supplementing our progress on the Angolan implementation are our recent announcements associated with the receipt of $13 million of orders for our core U.S. and Saudi Arabian programs. These new orders represent not only enhancements to our backlog, but also renewed volume commitments from two of our most valued strategic customers."

“We made progress towards refining our cost model with selective reductions in spending associated with SG&A and the realization of the full effect of reductions associated with our re-cast Research and Development plans,” continued DeVincenzi.

The Company recorded a $200,000 non-cash expense on the Statement of Operations in other income (expense) related to the $13.5 million of Student Loan Auction Rate Securities (SLARS) held by UBS AG. This represents the difference between the SLARS par value and the sum of their fair value and the value of the Put Right received from UBS in October. The company does not anticipate that it will record an additional expense on the SLARS between now and the June 30, 2009 Put date.